1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to fermented sausages and in particular to the use of hydrolyzed or a hydrolyzed whey fraction in such products.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As generally understood in the art, fermented sausages are those food products which include chopped, ground, pulverized or finely divided animal or poultry meat, meat by-products, or combinations thereof as a major component of the finished product and which are fermented by the addition of a microbial culture which digests components of the meat mixture to produce lactic acid. Fermented sausages represent a distinct class of products within the broader class of meat products known as comminuted meat products. They are generally characterized by a tangy, mildly acid taste, and are classified as either dry or semi-dry. The dry variety are shelf-stable at room temperatures; the semi-dry types require refrigeration.
Among the dry sausages are various varieties of salami, including the Italian alesandri, alpino, calabrese, genoa, and milano, the French arles, and the German and Hungarian types, as well as chorizos, frizzes, lola and lolita, lyons, and pepperoni. Representative of the semi-dry fermented sausages are the many varieties of cervelat or summer sausage, such as farmer, goettinger, goteborg, gothaer, holsteiner, land jaeger, and thuringer, as well as lebanon bologna and mortadella.
Fermented sausages generally include a meat component, a flavoring component, an extender component, a microbial culture, and in some cases, a coloring and/or a preservative component. This invention is directed to a new, inexpensive ingredient for use as the extender component, and in particular, to an extender which results in a product which cures to a lower pH and has a lower water activity.
In the past, expensive extenders, such as nonfat dry milk and hydrolyzed vegetable protein, have been used in comminuted meat products, including fermented sausages. Attempts to use less expensive extenders have been on-going. One series of attempts relating to comminuted meats in general has involved using whey, the by-product of cheese manufacturing, as an extender.
Whey typically contains, per liter, approximately 6 to 9 grams of protein , 45 to 50 grams of lactose, 6 to 8 grams of mineral salts, and 1 to 2 grams of fat. On a world-wide basis, the production of whey each year is estimated to be over 50 billion pounds. Whey thus represents a potentially important natural source of food for human consumption, provided it can be modified from its original state so as to make it palatable and functional in combination with other food ingredients.
Unfortunately, whey, as it is produced during the cheese manufacturing process, is of limited value as an extender, or for that matter, for anything else. Indeed, in the past, whey was regarded as a waste product and was discharged into sewers or streams and rivers. Today, however, because of increasing concerns over environmental pollution, much of the whey which is produced is subjected to some processing so that at a minimum it can be used as animal feed. Using whey as an animal feed, however, is a low value application and does not effectively take advantage of the true food value of whey.
Prior attempts to use whey as an extender for comminuted meats have suffered various disadvantages. Thus, U.S. Pat. No. 3,930,056 describes partially delactosing the whey and then fractionating the delactosed product by passing it through a bed containing a molecular sieve resin. The second fraction from the resin bed is used as an extender for cooked sausages. This procedure is both complicated and results in significant loss of food value as a result of the delactosing step.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,161,552 describes a multi-step process which includes adjusting the pH of a whey solution containing at least 20% acid whey or adjusting the pH and adding a divalent metal ion, such as calcium, to a sweet whey solution to produce a precipitate which constitutes the extender. The extender was used in non-specific loaves and frankfurters.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,259,363 describes combining whey derived materials, such as those described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,930,056, supra, with up to 50% casein or its salts to produce a meat extender for non-specific loaves. U.S. Pat. No. 4,165,391, although not directly concerned with meat extenders, describes a meat-related use for whey in which a whey-derived material is mixed with 50-80% hydrolyzed vegetable protein and 10-25% yeast autolysate to produce a meaty flavoring agent for addition to soups, gravies, snack foods, seasoning mixes and the like.
European Patent Application 0029503 describes culturing whey protein with a yogurt-type fermentation culture, blending the resulting product with such materials as whey protein concentrate, nonfat dried milk, sodium caseinate or corn syrup solids and spray-drying the blend to produce the desired extender. The extender can be used in tangy comminuted meat products, such as fermented sausages.